Published: June 4, 2008 | 7118th good news item since 2003

A MIRACLE baby born fit and well after growing in her mum’s ovary was hailed as one in a million yesterday.

Little Durga Thangarajah stretched the ovary so tight that her hair and face were visible through it.

The organ could have ruptured at any moment, killing the tot and putting mum Meera’s life at risk.

But apart from a spot of morning sickness, Meera had a healthy 38-week pregnancy and had no idea anything was wrong.

And her doctors didn’t realise that Durga was in her ovary until they began delivering her by Caesarean.

Durga, who arrived weighing 6lb 3oz, was only allowed to grow to full term because Meera didn’t have a scan early in her pregnancy.

If her condition, called an ectopic pregnancy, had been discovered, the baby would probably have been aborted to safeguard Meera’s health.

Only one in 100,000 successful deliveries involve babies who have grown outside the womb and doctors reckon the odds of a successful ovarian birth are a million to one.

Dr Andrew Miller, who delivered Durga on Thursday at a private hospital in Darwin, Australia, said: “It’s an extraordinarily unusual outcome. I’m not aware of anyone who has had a fulltermovarian pregnancy.

“It truly is a miracle that Meera got a living baby.”

Meera said: “I didn’t know anything about it until I woke up after the Caesarean and the doctors told me. I’m feeling like the luckiest woman in the world.”

Durga’s dad Ravi, 40, added: “We expected a normal Caesarean but the doctors told me it was like a miracle baby.

They said, ‘You’re one of the luckiest men in the world at the moment.'”